DrD

Anyone built a Caterham seven from one of their kits?
How long does it take, is it easy, and how much mechanical knowledge/special tools do you need?

Cheers,
Martin

Paul Wilson

I've built a Caterham Academy with a friend and reckon I could bulid one in half the time it took for the first one. We found the instructions to be a bit vague in places and not always in the right order, more photos would be helpfull. Make sure you read the all of the instruction manual before starting, for some bits the instructions were scattered about a bit.

You will need 4 axle stands at least one set of good tools (imperial and metric) a torque wrench and loads of drill bits. A tip for engine installation is to get everthing ready for the engine to go in and read the whole manual again, before hireing the hoist otherwise you'll do what we did and have to take the engine out again. It took us about 4 months working most weekends.

The manuals are also not 100% correct as Caterham make changes to the car and don't update the manual. From speaking to people at the Classic Carriage company who provide support for the Acadamey series, next years car will be very good with the new Rover engine (not yet in any cars) and DeDion axle, cost is about £13.5k as a kit and £16k built. If you fancy a bit of racing this is the one to go for.

Once you have built it, you need to do a nut and bolt check every month or before every event as things do come loose.

To make your life a lot easier when building the car paint you garage floor a light colour and your walls and ceiling white and install at least 3 strip lights on the ceiling, one at about a foot off the floor helps when you are underneath the car too.

Feel free to email me or ask anything else here, or why not come along to Brands Hatch in 2 weeks for the Caterham Festival and come and have a chat, I'll be with Richard Coopes Academy carin the paddock, my Silver STi2 does duty as tow car, just about the whole paddock knows me anyway I can usually be seen messing about with fuel